SC mayor showed ‘deception’ in polygraph. He says the machine is wrong
State investigators decided against bringing charges against a Midlands mayor over an alleged assault, even as Chapin Mayor Bill Mitchell potentially failed a polygraph test when questioned about the incident, notes on the investigation show.
The S.C. State Law Enforcement Division closed its investigation last week into the alleged assault at Chapin Town Hall, ultimately deciding there wasn’t enough corroborating evidence to prove one way or another what occurred between Mitchell and Chapin Clerk of Court Brianna Eargle.
“Be advised that SLED’s Office of General Counsel has reviewed the investigative file in this matter and agrees with you and your supervisors that this matter cannot be successfully proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” a memo to the investigating agent says. “To be clear, we all agree that the allegations in this matter are sincere and that there is no malice or ill-intent on the part of the complainant or any of the employees of the Town of Chapin in making the allegations in this matter. However, it is our opinion that there is simply a lack of objective evidence to successfully prove these allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The State obtained a copy of the investigative report compiled by the SLED agents working the case, who responded to town hall the same day as the incident and conducted multiple interviews with local officials and town employees who were present.
Alleged assault at Chapin Town Hall
Eargle filed an assault complaint against Mitchell the same day he was sworn in, alleging the new mayor had shaken her by the shoulders when she refused to open the town’s municipal courtroom for an impromptu swearing in.
Mitchell had shown up unannounced to Chapin Town Hall on Nov. 7, three days after his election, expecting to be sworn in immediately since former Mayor Al Koon had died in office two weeks before the election. Mitchell was ultimately sworn in that day in a different part of town hall.
The clerk filed the complaint that same day with the Chapin Police Department, and it was forwarded to SLED for investigation to avoid a conflict of interest.
Eargle told investigators that Mitchell was “coming at me and I kept backing up, and he kept coming towards me.” She said she told the mayor, “Sir, we really need to put a little bit of space between us,” and that he was being aggressive.
“At that point, according to Eargle Mayor Mitchell ‘grabbed me and he shook me’ and told her it did not matter how he was being and to go open the courtroom,” the report notes. “Eargle told Mayor Mitchell she was unable to do that. Mayor Mitchell said, ‘I’ll deal with you in a minute,’ and he walked away.”
Two other town employees who spoke to investigators said they had witnessed the alleged assault, and one provided SLED with an audio recording of the altercation, although the agent noted the audio did not indicate whether Eargle had been touched. Eargle also provided investigators with photos of bruising on her arm, which she said had been caused by Mitchell. Two other witnesses who arrived with Mitchell for the swearing in, including the mayor’s wife, told investigators they were present and did not observe contact between Mitchell and Eargle.
Speaking to The State, Mitchell says he was also surprised by the lack of preparation for the swearing in. He said he called Mayor Pro Tem Gregg White, who had been acting in Koon’s stead since the former mayor’s death, and told White he was planning to be sworn in that Friday and that he understood this to be the correct procedure in the event of a vacancy, but that message was apparently not relayed to the town staff, who were surprised when he showed up.
He said he didn’t blame Eargle for being hesitant to open the courtroom to them, although he said both were flustered by the situation and had “stern conversations” about it. “She was doing what she should be doing,” Mitchell said. “There’s no reason to assault someone because they won’t open a door to a room we don’t even need to be in.”
But he said he was “shocked” that same day when he was accusing of assaulting Eargle. “I was mirandized by the SLED agents the same day I was sworn in.”
“At some point, Bri and those two ladies [who claimed to witness the assault] concocted a story of me assaulting her, when my wife and adult children are right there,” he said. “Chisel it on my tombstone, it never happened.”
Investigators spoke to Mitchell that same day, and he denied ever touching Eargle during their encounter and said he moved away when she said she wanted more space. He said he would be willing to take a polygraph test, and did so five days later at SLED headquarters.
But when Mitchell denied touching Eargle during that interview, a polygraph examiner noted the results indicated “deception.” SLED agents performed a follow-up interview, Mitchell told them he had gotten the timeline confused, and that while he had not touched Eargle during the encounter she filed the complaint about, he had earlier placed his hand on her shoulder in a manner he described as “consoling.”
Mitchell told The State he instinctively touched Eargle’s shoulder in an attempt to cut the tension in their interaction, but also said he didn’t recall that interaction until SLED agents showed him security footage from the town hall lobby. “I told them, I learned one thing, that lie detectors don’t work,” he said. “The machine is wrong, that’s why they don’t allow [polygraph results] in court.”
Retaliation against town employees?
Town Administrator Nicholle Burroughs was not present for the alleged assault, but she reported that Eargle told her about the incident shortly after when Burroughs arrived to the town hall. She also told investigators that Mitchell told her she should place town employees “on warning” that he would “take action” against them for speaking to SLED.
“Burroughs advised that could be considered retaliation and obstruction of justice, and she highly recommended he not have her do that,” the report says. “Despite her warning him five times, he told Burroughs she was required to send out that directive, and if she did not, it would be considered insubordination.”
Mitchell was adamant in their conversation that he had not grabbed Eargle, and that anyone telling law enforcement that he had was engaged in a malicious attack.
“Well, if they speak to SLED, they’re lying so I will take any recourse that is available to me,” Burroughs recalled the mayor saying, according to the report. “Mayor Mitchell ‘very explicitly’ said he never touched Eargle and anyone who said he did was lying and he will ‘fire them.’”
Burroughs said the mayor also told her to immediately place anyone who spoke to SLED on administrative leave, which she said she warned him could also constitute retaliation. Eargle was placed on administrative leave on Nov. 10, the Monday after the incident. She said Mitchell told her she was placed on leave because of the SLED investigation.
Speaking to The State, Mitchell adamantly denied telling anyone not to cooperate with SLED. “It would be inappropriate and it would jeopardize the investigation,” he said. Of Burroughs’ comments to SLED, he said, “I don’t know where she’s getting any of this from. It’s all fiction. It’s a mystery to me why she would do such a thing.”
The mayor said the only reason he placed Eargle on leave – during which time, he pointed out, she’s continued to receive full pay – was to protect the integrity of the SLED investigation. He compared it to a police officer being placed on leave while an officer-involved shooting is being investigated.
“She served in a position as clerk of court where her office was in the police department, where she has access to all of the videos, the records, the police reports,” Mitchell said. “I put in writing that it was to protect the integrity of the investigation on behalf of the citizens of Chapin, and that’s the only reason, and I think it’s the right position.”
But he wouldn’t say whether Eargle would now come back to work now that the investigation is over.
“I don’t know if she wants to work here,” he said. “I think that would put us both in an awkward place.”
By Eargle’s own description of their encounter, he said, “I scared her to death.”
By late November, Burroughs was also gone from town hall after Mitchell acted to eliminate the town administrator position, part of a campaign promise that he would run Chapin himself as a “full-time mayor.”
Burroughs did not respond to a request from The State to comment on the investigative report Wednesday.
Mitchell denied to investigators that he ever ordered employees not to cooperate with the SLED investigation, and said Burroughs had taken his comment out of context. He said he told her he did not know the other town employees involved, but wanted them placed on leave on the same basis as Eargle.
“Mayor Mitchell felt like Burroughs put Eargle up to making the allegations against him,” the report says.
Seen on video
SLED agents also reviewed surveillance footage from the town hall lobby, which captured Mitchell and Eargle interacting, during which time Mitchell “briefly put his left hand on Eargle’s shoulder,” although the investigator noted this was not the interaction during which the alleged assault occurred, which he said happened outside the range of the town hall security camera. The footage also showed an interaction between Mitchell and Burroughs in which both “appeared to nonchalantly touch each other’s arm/shoulder area.”
Mitchell said he was satisfied with the outcome of the investigation.
“They determined it should be dismissed, and that it cannot be validated, and I’m thankful that that’s where we stand,” he said.
Despite the end of the SLED investigation, Eargle has retained attorneys and previously told The State she and other employees are considering legal action. She wrote a formal memo to the town alleging “workplace sex discrimination, hostile work environment, and the threat of retaliation.”
Since the incident and her removal from town hall, “I am consumed by fear,” Eargle wrote. “Fear of losing my career, fear that justice will not be served, fear that this man will escape accountability, and fear for the safety of my friends and coworkers who remain under his authority.”
For his part, Mitchell said he couldn’t explain the “hostile environment” he says he’s walked into at town hall.
“But I’m still here, doing what the town elected me to do,” he said. “I’ve continued to work with my right hand and fighting off the distractions with my left. It didn’t slow me down for one minute.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 8:16 AM.
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